CA1073022A - Integrated silver-tin oxide electrical contact materials - Google Patents

Integrated silver-tin oxide electrical contact materials

Info

Publication number
CA1073022A
CA1073022A CA288,100A CA288100A CA1073022A CA 1073022 A CA1073022 A CA 1073022A CA 288100 A CA288100 A CA 288100A CA 1073022 A CA1073022 A CA 1073022A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
pieces
alloy
weight
silver
electrical contact
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA288,100A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Akira Shibata
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Chugai Electric Industrial Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Chugai Electric Industrial Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Chugai Electric Industrial Co Ltd filed Critical Chugai Electric Industrial Co Ltd
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1073022A publication Critical patent/CA1073022A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • HELECTRICITY
    • H01ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01HELECTRIC SWITCHES; RELAYS; SELECTORS; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES
    • H01H1/00Contacts
    • H01H1/02Contacts characterised by the material thereof
    • H01H1/021Composite material
    • H01H1/023Composite material having a noble metal as the basic material
    • H01H1/0237Composite material having a noble metal as the basic material and containing oxides
    • H01H1/02372Composite material having a noble metal as the basic material and containing oxides containing as major components one or more oxides of the following elements only: Cd, Sn, Zn, In, Bi, Sb or Te
    • H01H1/02376Composite material having a noble metal as the basic material and containing oxides containing as major components one or more oxides of the following elements only: Cd, Sn, Zn, In, Bi, Sb or Te containing as major component SnO2
    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C22METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
    • C22CALLOYS
    • C22C32/00Non-ferrous alloys containing at least 5% by weight but less than 50% by weight of oxides, carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides or other metal compounds, e.g. oxynitrides, sulfides, whether added as such or formed in situ
    • C22C32/001Non-ferrous alloys containing at least 5% by weight but less than 50% by weight of oxides, carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides or other metal compounds, e.g. oxynitrides, sulfides, whether added as such or formed in situ with only oxides
    • C22C32/0015Non-ferrous alloys containing at least 5% by weight but less than 50% by weight of oxides, carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides or other metal compounds, e.g. oxynitrides, sulfides, whether added as such or formed in situ with only oxides with only single oxides as main non-metallic constituents
    • C22C32/0021Matrix based on noble metals, Cu or alloys thereof

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  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Materials Engineering (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Metallurgy (AREA)
  • Organic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Composite Materials (AREA)
  • Contacts (AREA)
  • Manufacture Of Switches (AREA)
  • Manufacture Of Alloys Or Alloy Compounds (AREA)

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE:

Ag-SnO alloy contact materials of such dimensions which are hard to achieve internal oxidation, are produced by metallurgically integrating pieces of said alloy material, said pieces being of such dimensions that they are easily internally oxidized. Integration consists of congregating or assemblying said pieces under pressure and at a temperature higher than 700°C, with or without hot rolling or hot extrusion thereafter.

Description

~ iO~30ZZ
.-This invention relates to an integrated electricalcontact material, and more particularly, it relates to an electrical contact material integrated from Ag-SnO alloy piece materials. This invention is also related to a method of i producing this material, and also a composite electrical contact made therewith.
` Ag-SnO alloy contact materials made by internal oxidation were disclosed by the present inventor, for example in United States Letters Patent N. 3,933,485. Those alloys, which have metal oxides precipitated therein as the result of internal oxidation, are composed of 1.5 - 10% by weight of tin, 0.5 - 6% by weight of indium, a trace amount of less than 0.5%

~ "
~ by weight of iron family element metals, and the balance of `; silver, and are advantageously utilizable in the present inven-tion.

It has been affirmed by the present inventor through ,..
a number of experiments that Ag-SnO alloys are comparable with or superior to Ag-CdO alloys in their various characteristics.
But, the former has the drawback in the manufacturing thereof that the diffusion velocity of oxygen for the internal oxidation of Ag-Sn alloys (for example, oxygen diffusion into the internal alloy structures under an atmospheric condition of about 700C) ` is comparatively slower than that for Ag-Cd, viz., about half it,~ of the latter's. This means that it takes a considerably long .
period of time to have Ag-Sn alloy of comparatively large dimensions internally oxidized, and that the internal oxidation ,!,~,. of such alloy i~ sometimes incomplete.
; In order to overcome such drawbacks which are somewhat ~`
inherent to Ag-SnO alloys, and also in order to obtain advanta-geously Ag-SnO alloy contact material of comparatively large dimensions, the inventor has made this invention, in which a number of pieces of Ag-SnO alloys (Ag - Sn 1.5-10% - In 0.5 - 5% -:

. . . . - . . .
, .

10~30~2 Ni or Co less than 0.5%), each having dimensions which enable each piece to be completely internally oxidized in a compara-tively short period of time, and which pieces are, for example, in the shape of thin plates, wires, or granules, are congrega-ted or assembled together under pressure into a desired mass or shape, and are heated at a temperature of about the melting point of silver, viz., 960C.
This integration step can be performed also by congregating said number of Ag-SnO alloy pieces with silver, copper, or alloys thereof, whereby it is possible to produce composite contact materials having large dimensions or mass, and being composed of said silver, copper or their alloys, which are clad with Ag-SnO alloy materials. When copper is utilized as a base for the integrated material of this invention, ., .
` said heat-treatment temperature shall preferably be about the eutectic temperature of silver and copper, viz., 779C.
The electrical contact material thus obtained and ;~ integrated from Ag-SnO alloy pieces or materials, with or ;'?'~ without a base portion of silver, copper or their alloys, may be subjected to heat-rolling or extrusion so as to shape the contact material to a plate or wire of desired dimensions. In ; this instance, the aforementioned heat-treatment under the melting point of silver would be conducted together with said rolling or extrusion.
' It has been found from durability tests that the integrated Ag-SnO alloy electrical contact made in accordance with this invention i9 superior, especially with respect to its contact resistance, to the corresponding Ag-SnO alloy contact which is internally oxidized solidly as a unit, when the 30 contacts have comparatively large dimensions. This is because, when a Ag-SnO alloy of relatively large dimensions is internally oxidized primarily as a whole, the internal oxidation becomes .: ~ . :. . . . . . .
.

~ 3~2 ,',' incomplete, as aforementioned, resulting in making its inner portion less hard, while its contact pressure decreases along with wear of the contact, whereby contact resistance thereof becomes large, resulting in undersireable welding thereof. On the contrary, the novel contact disclosed herein has no such phenomena, since it has even hardness throughout its mass ; and life.
:
Working principles on which this invention has been made are enumerated as follows:
(l) Metal oxides of the Ag-SnO having the afore-mentioned compositions are stable above 700C and even above the melting point of silver, 960C;
(2) Metal oxides precipitated in said Ag-SnO alloy `~ are far harder than those of Ag-CdO alloy, and are about one ~
tenth of the latter in size. Hence, they and their dispersion -phases within the alloy structures remain same even after rolling or extrusion thereof. In addition, these extremely . ,:
~ minute and hard metal oxides work to prevent congregated alloy ;,, .
pleces from sliding relative to each other when they are 20 subjected to pressure, whereby their fresh abutting surfaces ~; are kept fresh and active. This effect is noticea~e especially when the present invention integrated material i9 made with copper as a base thereof, and
(3) Stresses produced in the integrated Ag-SnO alloy materials are relieved with a rolling or extrusion operation, ' since the operation can be held at a temperature about the partial melting point of silver. This i~ also on account of the discontinuation of silver grain boundaries within alloy ; structures, produced with hot-rolling or extrusion.

- An alloy of Ag - Sn 5% - In 1.7% - Ni 0.3% (in weight) was rolled to a plate of lmm in thickness. The plate was cut ,, .
: , .

30~2 to small plates of 60mm in width and 300 mm in length. The small plates wère subjected to an internal oxidation at lO
oxidizing atm. and at the temperature of 700C for 40 hours.
Both surfaces of the small plates thus internally oxidized were cleaned by 5% nitric acid solution.
A piece of silver plate of the same size as said small plates, and ten pieces of said Ag-SnO small plates were placed one above the other in layers, the silver plate being , ., the bottom-most layer. These assembled or congregated plates were heated at the temperature of 800C for lO minutes, while , they were kept under a pressure of lton/cm . The plates inte-grated in this manner to a mass were preheated to 800C and rolled to a plate of 2mm in thickness, from which contacts of 6mm in diameter were punched out. Said contacts of the present .s~
invention, and other contacts of the same size and composition , which were internally oxidized as a unit at said size, were tested regarding their performances as prescribed in A.S.T.M.

Test conditions were as follows:

Voltage A.C. : 220V

Current: 50 amps ,~ Load: reactor Pf = 0.2 ~` Frequency: 60 times per minute ' Switching cycles: lOO,OOO
. .
; Contact preseure: 100 g Results were as follows:

`~ Present Invention Normally oxidized Aq-SnO alloY contact Aa-SnO alloy contact Welding 7 8 ., (times) Contact pressure 2.0m-~ 3.5m~Z
. "
Wear Loss 23mg 25mg An alloy of the composition as in Example l was _ 4 _ ' ~' ."~ - , .

~ 30'~Z

; processed to a wire of 2mm in diameter. This wire was cut into short wires of 300 mm in length. The short wires were subjected to an internal oxidation at 3atm. of oxygen and at the tempera-ture of 700C for 20 hours. After washing them with an acid they were assembled or congregated into a bundle 50mm in diameter. This bundle was subjected to a hot extrusion at the temperature of 800C, whereby six pieces of wire of 4mm in diameter were obtained. These wires were processed to form a tape of 0.5mm in thickness and 4mm in width, while being repeatedly subjected to annealing. To one of the surfaces of this tape a different tape of the same dimensions, and composed of Cu-Ni (30%) alloy, was press joined, while the tapes were heated to a temperature of about 850C. The abutting surfaces had eutectic structures which assured a strong joint.
The tape-shaped Ag-SnO alloy contact material thus obtained had better elongation than Ag-SnO alloy contact ;~ materials of the type which were conventionally internally oxidized. Contrary to conventionally oxidized Ag-SnO alloy materials, which have poor tensile strength and are apt ~-to have cracks when they are cut to a desired length, the .
present invention products were able to be welded to contact leaves, and they were continuously cut to a predetermined length.

.:
:
i EXAMPLE 3 An alloy of Ag - Sn 8% - In 3% - Ni 0.3% (in weight) was prepared and melted. It was atomized by a blast of nitrogen gas to produce granules of 0.3 to l.5mm in diameterO They were `; subjected to an internal oxidation step in an oxidizing atmos- -phere and at the temperature of 700C for 6 hours. They were washed by an acid and congregated or assembled into the form of a disk of 6mm in diameter and 2mm in thickness, with silver ' ~

: . :..

1~)730ZZ
~, -, .
powders of one tenth of the total weight being placed at the .
bottom~ This disk-shaped contact was pressed under 3 tons, and then sintered for 3 hours at the temperature of 900C and under the flow of oxygen. This product was finally shaped under the pressure of 5 tons.
' It was found from tests that said disk-shaped contact '~ made in accordance with the present invention had contact ~ resistances as low as 30 to 50% of conventional ones.
~;:
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7' :,, .
'.,' s '.~`.~'~;' ' i',~,''., ':

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~ .
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.`: ', ... , . .

:, ! ., . .

. ~,. ~ .
,,.:~ ' ' .

Y ~
..... .

,:

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Claims (7)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. An electrical contact material of comparatively large dimensions being assembled from pieces of an alloy which are of such dimensions that said pieces are readily internally oxidizable, each of said pieces of alloy having metal oxides precipitated therein as the result of internal oxidation for a comparatively short period of time and being composed of 1.5 to 10% by weight of tin, 0.5 to 6% by weight of indium, a trace amount of less than 0.5% by weight of iron family element metals, and the balance of silver, and said assembled pieces of the alloy being metallurgically integrated with each other as the result of heat treatment conducted at a tempera-ture higher than 700°C and at about the melting point of silver.
2. A contact material as claimed in claim 1, said assembled pieces of the alloy being hot rolled or extruded into a desired configuration, after having been subjected to said heat-treatment.
3. A contact material as claimed in claim 1, wherein said metallurgically integrated pieces of alloy are clad to a base material selected from the group consisting of silver, copper and alloys thereof.
4. A method of making a Ag-SnO alloy electrical contact material of comparatively large dimensions, which comprises assemblying under pressure a desired number of pieces of an alloy of such dimensions that they are internally oxidizable within a comparatively short period of time, each of said pieces having metal oxides precipitated therein as the result of internal oxidation and being composed of 1.5 to 10% by weight of tin, 0.5 to 6% by weight of indium, a trace amount of less than 0.5% by weight of nickel or cobalt, and the balance of silver, and metallurgically integrating said pieces to each other by subjecting them to a temperature higher than 700°C and sufficient to induce at least partially the melting of said congregated pieces of said alloy.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4, including subjecting the heat-treated pieces of alloy to rolling or extrusion with or without heat.
6. The method as claimed in claim 4, in which at least one piece of metal selected from the group consisting of silver, copper and alloys thereof is assembled under pressure with the pieces of the Ag-SnO alloy.
7. The method of making an electrical contact, comprising forming a plurality of pieces of an alloy composed of 1.5 - 10% by weight of tin, 0.5 - 6.0% by weight of indium, a trace amount of less than 0.5% by weight of nickel or cobalt, and the balance silver, subjecting said pieces to a heat treatment for a brief interval of time to effect substantially complete internal oxidation in each of said pieces, and thereafter metallurgically integrating said internally oxidized pieces under pressure and a temperature in excess of 700°C into the configuration of the desired electrical contact.
CA288,100A 1977-06-20 1977-10-04 Integrated silver-tin oxide electrical contact materials Expired CA1073022A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US80791077A 1977-06-20 1977-06-20

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1073022A true CA1073022A (en) 1980-03-04

Family

ID=25197408

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA288,100A Expired CA1073022A (en) 1977-06-20 1977-10-04 Integrated silver-tin oxide electrical contact materials

Country Status (9)

Country Link
JP (1) JPS62250135A (en)
AU (1) AU512691B2 (en)
BR (1) BR7801632A (en)
CA (1) CA1073022A (en)
DE (1) DE2747089A1 (en)
FR (1) FR2395582A1 (en)
GB (1) GB1604975A (en)
HK (1) HK25582A (en)
MX (1) MX149630A (en)

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4452652A (en) * 1982-07-08 1984-06-05 Akira Shibata Electrical contact materials and their production method
JPH04311543A (en) * 1991-04-09 1992-11-04 Chugai Electric Ind Co Ltd Ag-sno-ino electrical contact material and production thereof
DE19543208C1 (en) * 1995-11-20 1997-02-20 Degussa Silver@-iron@ material contg. oxide additives
DE19543223C1 (en) * 1995-11-20 1997-02-20 Degussa Silver@-iron@ material contg. oxide additives
DE19543222C1 (en) * 1995-11-20 1997-02-20 Degussa Silver@-iron material contg. oxide additives

Family Cites Families (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3151385A (en) * 1962-10-03 1964-10-06 Gibson Electric Company Method of forming electrical contacts
DE2213326B2 (en) * 1972-03-18 1974-02-21 Fa. Dr. Eugen Duerrwaechter Doduco, 7530 Pforzheim Process for the powder-metallurgical production of finished molded parts from silver-containing metal oxide composites for contacts
JPS5341778B2 (en) * 1972-11-28 1978-11-07
US3874941A (en) * 1973-03-22 1975-04-01 Chugai Electric Ind Co Ltd Silver-metal oxide contact materials
FR2236261A1 (en) * 1973-07-05 1975-01-31 Sumitomo Electric Industries Electrical contacts of silver- indium- and tin- oxides - made by internal oxidn. of silver-indium-tin alloys, and with excellent properties
US3933485A (en) * 1973-07-20 1976-01-20 Chugai Denki Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha Electrical contact material
GB1507854A (en) * 1974-04-01 1978-04-19 Mallory & Co Inc P R Electric contact materials
JPS5647255B2 (en) * 1974-10-08 1981-11-09
JPS5910981B2 (en) * 1975-03-26 1984-03-13 中外電気工業 (株) electrical contact materials
JPS51120927A (en) * 1975-04-16 1976-10-22 Sumitomo Electric Ind Ltd Electric contact material
JPS51121796A (en) * 1975-04-17 1976-10-25 Nippon Tungsten Co Ltd Electric contact materal
JPS523193A (en) * 1975-06-24 1977-01-11 Sumitomo Electric Ind Ltd Electric contact material
DE2530704C3 (en) * 1975-07-10 1980-06-04 Fa. G. Rau, 7530 Pforzheim Composite material as a semi-finished product for electrical contact pieces and manufacturing processes for this

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
FR2395582B1 (en) 1982-04-02
AU2969577A (en) 1979-04-26
DE2747089C2 (en) 1987-12-10
DE2747089A1 (en) 1978-12-21
GB1604975A (en) 1981-12-16
HK25582A (en) 1982-06-18
FR2395582A1 (en) 1979-01-19
JPS62250135A (en) 1987-10-31
BR7801632A (en) 1979-01-16
MX149630A (en) 1983-12-06
AU512691B2 (en) 1980-10-23

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